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Edwards followed faith for record-breaking career
11/5/2021 8:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
WAC Defensive POY went from Lopes walk-on to record-breaker
Years of records — broken by a walk-on.
Hannah Edwards, a fifth-year defender for Grand Canyon women's soccer, started the year with a bang, breaking three all-time soccer records within the first month of her final season. Edwards is ending her career the same way, earning WAC Defensive Player of the Year to help put GCU two victories away from a WAC Tournament title and the program's first NCAA tournament berth.
"I had those special people in my life that told me I was good enough, so I was like, 'If they believed in me, I can believe in myself too,' " Edwards said. "So it was about proving it to myself, everyone else, to my family too, like just making my family proud."
Edwards, now a graduate student, saw the opportunity to walk on to the Lopes after she heard about an ID camp that GCU hosted during her senior year at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, Colorado.
Her talent and drive landed a preferred walk-on opportunity. She jumped at the chance and hasn't looked back since, earning an athletic scholarship early in her Lopes career.
Deciding to come to GCU was a huge step, but she also saw an ideal fit with GCU's biomedical engineering program, the campus' proximity to her family and her Christian faith.
"I was like, 'You know what? I think I'm gonna go with my faith and I think God's got my back for this one,' " Edwards said.
Edwards proved to be a strong force in the back line from the very beginning. After coming in as a substitute in her first game and demonstrating her physicality, Edwards secured the starting center-back position and has started every game since then.
She earned an All-WAC honorable mention last season, when the Lopes began the program turnaround by going 6-1-1 in the final eight games. For this season's 14-3-2 WAC West Division champions, she joined senior Marleen Schimmer, junior Gianna Gourley and sophomore Brenna Alderson on All-WAC first team.
"Hannah Edwards has had a phenomenal season for us and a tremendous career," GCU head coach Chris Cissell said. "I am so proud of her and she is very deserving of the nice honors that been bestowed on her recently. Super proud of her and all her teammates. She has provided great leadership in the back line. She and her teammates have played extremely well and are very organized and have made it extremely difficult for our opponents to score on us.
"Not only is she a tremendous athletic defender, but she is also an offensive threat on all set pieces and had scored four goals this year on corner kicks. I am extremely proud of her and she has been a great leader on and off the field for us."
She tops GCU charts for career games, starts and minutes played. With an all-time high of 92 starts and 8,167 minutes logged, not only does Edwards lead the charts on the women's side but does so on the men's side as well, making her the GCU Division I-era leader for these records.
"That was not my intention at all," Edwards said. "Freshman year, I really didn't think I would see the field at all, like ever. I thought, 'Maybe, you know what? I'm a freshman. Junior and senior year, maybe I'll get to.' But, it was just one of those things where I was what the coaches wanted. I just worked my butt off. Those records were never ever in my plan at all."
Through her hard work and dedication, Edwards has become a role model and inspiration for aspiring soccer players, showing them that it is possible to pursue your dreams even if they're not handed to you.
"I told the girls at the ID camp, I was like, 'If anything guys, be yourself. That's all that matters. If you're yourself and you're rocking it, then you're gonna find your place somewhere,' " Edwards said. "I just found it here."
Contributing writer Sarah Lewis, a GCU junior from Hawaii, is majoring in Professional Writing for New Media.
Hannah Edwards, a fifth-year defender for Grand Canyon women's soccer, started the year with a bang, breaking three all-time soccer records within the first month of her final season. Edwards is ending her career the same way, earning WAC Defensive Player of the Year to help put GCU two victories away from a WAC Tournament title and the program's first NCAA tournament berth.
"I had those special people in my life that told me I was good enough, so I was like, 'If they believed in me, I can believe in myself too,' " Edwards said. "So it was about proving it to myself, everyone else, to my family too, like just making my family proud."Edwards, now a graduate student, saw the opportunity to walk on to the Lopes after she heard about an ID camp that GCU hosted during her senior year at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, Colorado.
Her talent and drive landed a preferred walk-on opportunity. She jumped at the chance and hasn't looked back since, earning an athletic scholarship early in her Lopes career.
Deciding to come to GCU was a huge step, but she also saw an ideal fit with GCU's biomedical engineering program, the campus' proximity to her family and her Christian faith.
"I was like, 'You know what? I think I'm gonna go with my faith and I think God's got my back for this one,' " Edwards said.
Edwards proved to be a strong force in the back line from the very beginning. After coming in as a substitute in her first game and demonstrating her physicality, Edwards secured the starting center-back position and has started every game since then.She earned an All-WAC honorable mention last season, when the Lopes began the program turnaround by going 6-1-1 in the final eight games. For this season's 14-3-2 WAC West Division champions, she joined senior Marleen Schimmer, junior Gianna Gourley and sophomore Brenna Alderson on All-WAC first team.
"Hannah Edwards has had a phenomenal season for us and a tremendous career," GCU head coach Chris Cissell said. "I am so proud of her and she is very deserving of the nice honors that been bestowed on her recently. Super proud of her and all her teammates. She has provided great leadership in the back line. She and her teammates have played extremely well and are very organized and have made it extremely difficult for our opponents to score on us.
"Not only is she a tremendous athletic defender, but she is also an offensive threat on all set pieces and had scored four goals this year on corner kicks. I am extremely proud of her and she has been a great leader on and off the field for us."
She tops GCU charts for career games, starts and minutes played. With an all-time high of 92 starts and 8,167 minutes logged, not only does Edwards lead the charts on the women's side but does so on the men's side as well, making her the GCU Division I-era leader for these records.
"That was not my intention at all," Edwards said. "Freshman year, I really didn't think I would see the field at all, like ever. I thought, 'Maybe, you know what? I'm a freshman. Junior and senior year, maybe I'll get to.' But, it was just one of those things where I was what the coaches wanted. I just worked my butt off. Those records were never ever in my plan at all."
Through her hard work and dedication, Edwards has become a role model and inspiration for aspiring soccer players, showing them that it is possible to pursue your dreams even if they're not handed to you.
"I told the girls at the ID camp, I was like, 'If anything guys, be yourself. That's all that matters. If you're yourself and you're rocking it, then you're gonna find your place somewhere,' " Edwards said. "I just found it here."
Contributing writer Sarah Lewis, a GCU junior from Hawaii, is majoring in Professional Writing for New Media.
Players Mentioned
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